New Death In DR Congo Ebola Outbreak, Death Toll Hits 26

The outbreak of Ebola in Congo, Africa has continued to surge despite efforts by World Health Organization officials to curtail it.

The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has risen to 26 after a person died in the northwest city of Mbandaka, Health Minister Oly Ilunga said on Monday.

“A death was recorded (on Sunday), while two people who had been confirmed as ill with the Ebola virus were cured on Saturday,” he said.

“The two people who were cured have returned to their families,” he told reporters.

Those two cases occurred at Bikoro, a remote rural area where the outbreak was announced on May 8 and then spread to Mbandaka — an event that has deeply worried health experts.

The current toll is 49 cases, comprising 22 confirmed by laboratory tests, 21 probable cases and six suspected cases, Ilunga said. Three new cases had been reported on Saturday.

Authorities in the DRC on Monday were to launch a programme to immunise first responders with an experimental Ebola vaccine.

The first phase will unfold in Mbandaka on Monday, followed on Saturday in Bikoro, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) away.

Donors have promised 300,000 doses of the vaccine, a government spokesman said, of which around 5,400 have already been received.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has dispatched 35 immunisation experts, including 16 mobilised during the last deadly outbreak in West Africa which occurred in 2013. The rest of the team is made up of newly trained Congolese staff.